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The Battalion • Page 5
Tuesday • July 18, 1995 '
at is wrong with bisexuality
Elizabeth
Preston
Columnist
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[ very relationship has at
least one thing in common,
I they all need boundaries.
■Some are clearer than others,
/bile some boundaries are so
blurred that they almost don’t ex
ist. If people live with either too
few or too many boundaries, then
there is usually trouble.
For instance, if a professor makes sexual or
rovocative jokes with a student, that profes-
or has stepped over the student/professor
oundary and into the gray world of sexual
arassment.
If your significant other asks your best
riend out, and your best friend accepts,
hey have both stepped over very clear
boundaries and have probably destroyed
both relationships.
On the other hand, when people have too
many boundaries, they spend a lot of their
lime making sure those boundaries are
protected.
However, people who are lacking in
boundaries often reach out to everyone and
have trouble saying “no” to anything. A lot
of these people end up abusing drugs or liv
ing reckless lives.
One social phenomenon that has no
boundaries is bisexuality.
Newsweek wrote a positively gleeful
y article last week chronicling the rise of a
“new generation of sexuality.”
The bisexual people featured in this article
were not only excited, but eager to share de-
giPails about their open marriages, free sexuali
ty and cutting-edge coolness,
s Many of the people quoted seemed to be
coming from not only another perspective, but
another planet.
I For instance, Howard University professor
and new father Elias Farajaje-Jones, who be
lieves that gender lines aren’t definite, said
that when people ask if his child is a girl or a
boy, he replies, “Ask the
baby.”
In another example, a 25-
year-old bisexual man, said
“I don’t desire a gender, I de
sire a person.”
Bisexuals are not neces
sarily promiscuous, and sev
eral who were interviewed
were involved in long-term,
committed relationships.
However, sexual orientation destroys many
boundaries that are better left alone.
My best friend and I were dis
cussing bisexuality a few
years ago, and on an intel
lectual level we could ra
tionalize being attracted to
women.
$ $
hotosl
>N
> FOR
After all, we often notice at
tractive women and comment on
their beauty, and we feel closer
to some women friends than we
uo with some men we have dated.
However, we realized that as soon as
both genders Eire objects of sexual attraction,
problems would arise.
This would make both genders subject to
the weird and crazy feelings that usually ac
company sexual relationships.
When I am fighting with a boyfriend or
am sad about a bad date, my women
friends are people who I can count on to be
sympathetic and understanding of my
problems. Likewise, homosexuals have the
opposite gender who they can count on for
non-sexual friendship and advice.
With friends of the opposite sex — even men
who I have never had any romantic interest in
— there is always an edge of sexual tension —
whether good or bad, intense or slight.
If I find the person attractive, I am
more likely to flirt and tease, whereas if I
do not find them attractive, I am always
extremely careful not to flirt or act in a
sexual manner.
However, bisexuals have no boundaries
set up against sexuality, because every re
lationship that they participate in has sex
ual potential.
Jenny, a 23-year-old bisexual I spoke
with, said this isn’t a problem because sex
brings people closer together. “I sleep with my
best friend because it gives us a different bond
than most friendships. Also, my husband and
I don’t believe in monogamy. Why should we
limit ourselves to one person or one sex when
you can explore the bounds of your sexuality
with every gender?”
I couldn’t have argued against bisexuality
any better myself.
Sexuality is important and provides many
comforting and tender moments.
But any sexual relationship is occasionally
fraught with tension, despair, nervousness
and jealousy. In a non-sexual relationship
these things generally are missing, or at least
they are not felt as passionately or as often.
Instead, non-sexual relationships offer sta
bility and a calm that many sexual relation
ships cannot match.
Bisexuality is not wrong. But it is a
world without boundaries, a needlessly-
complicated world where sexuality satu
rates too many aspects of life.
Elizabeth Preston is a senior
English major
&WS TWE Ram?
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ARE YOU SAYING THAT THEY MAKE
BULLETS THAT PIERCE THESE THINGS!!
TThE ByVT TA,LI ON
Established in 1893
Editorials appearing in The Battalion reflect the views
of the editorials board. They do not necessarily reflect
the opinions of other Battalion staff members, the
Texas A&M student body, regents, administration,
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Contact the opinion editor for information on
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Editorials Board
Jay Robbins
Editor in Chief
Rob Clark
Managing Editor
Sterling Hayman
Opinion Editor
Kyle Littlefield
Assistant Opinion Editor
Flawed focus
Race should not be a factor in
deciding the fate of adoptions.
A Texas court case con
cerning allegations that an
Austin couple’s adoption was
delayed by state social work
ers because the children were
of a different race than their
prospective parents, has
raised questions about the
adoption process and the
ethics involved in interracial
adoptions.
The couple, an American
Indian and her Caucasian
husband, currently is seek
ing the adoption of two black
children and claims that
state social workers are de
laying the adoption process
based on the fact that the
adoption would be create an
interracial family.
Hopefully, this is not the
case.
Adoption agencies are re
sponsible for finding the best
possible homes for those chil
dren who are without families
or whose families have de
serted them.
Neither the race of the
children nor that of the par
ents should even be a factor
in deciding the fate of the
adoption.
For an adoption agency to
deny an adoption based on
the issue of race smacks of
segregation and should not be
tolerated.
If a state agency decides
that one family is better than
another simply because of
race, this action clearly would
be racist.
Far too many children to
day are in need of families
that can provide the love and
attention that orphanages
and state agencies cannot.
When the adoption process
is halted by such a trivial issue,
the entire process suffers.
Couples interested in
adopting children can become
discouraged, and the place
ment of the children in loving
homes can become delayed
even more.
The children are the most
important reasons of all for
the adoption process to not fo
cus on such particulars.
Adoption agencies should
worry about more important
things such as the number of
children who are in need of
families and the number of
children who are being
abused or neglected.
The couples who are inter
ested in adoptions are acting
in the children’s interest.
The state should follow
their lead.
Today’s youth must actively take part in shaping the future
It
T he laws of time teach us that there
are 60 minutes in an hour, 24
hours in a day and 365 days in a
year. These are cold, boring facts which
we rarely pay attention to.
However, if we are not careful, the
constant march of time passing by can
lull us to sleep. And the deeper into
sleep we go, the harder it is to wake us up.
Today, America’s youth are comatose.
We have been put to sleep by society.
We have been taught not to care if we ever
wake up.
We have learned to think so little of ourselves
that we are only satisfied when we sleep.
I admit that I too have been sleeping. I took a
dose of America’s sleeping pill and fell into a deep
slumber.
Now I have awakened ... and my, how things
have changed.
I remember the days of the movement to free
Nelson Mandela, when shanties were erected on
Texas A&M’s campus (and each time destroyed in
the night).
F*ublic Enemy had us fighting the power, and
Spike Lee told us to “do the right thing.”
Frank
ERNANDEZ
Guest Columnist
“X” caps in red, black and green were
spotted everywhere, and a march was
held following the Rodney King verdict
(which is a misnomer — King wasn’t on
trial).
I look around A&M today and see that
students have disappeared from the
scene, both physically and mentally.
Why? The problems still exist.
Minority enrollment has increased, but not sub
stantially, and not from a percentage basis. The
faculty still shines with a dominant white hue.
“Multiculturalism” is still a foreign word that
seems to translate as an expletive.
Athletics is still more important than acade
mics. The Aggie Band still has a larger budget
than the Department of Multicultural Services.
And more money will be spent on a special-events
center than on expanding the library.
In all fairness, however, I shouldn’t blame the
students’ disappearance entirely on Texas A&M.
The reality is that society as a whole has de
stroyed us.
We are taught that our young minds are only
good for talk shows that give us free rein to shame
ourselves.
Attending college can be an unrealistic pipe
dream because some students must endlessly
search on campus for anyone that looks like them.
These are the stale messages that are fed to us
everyday, seasoned with self-hate. We have fool
ishly eaten this poison and actually thanked soci
ety for giving us something to do.
The messages we receive from this community
alone reek with the stench of destruction and
worthlessness.
Some law-enforcement officers feel paddywag-
ons are necessary to convince us to quiet down at a
house party.
And others haunt our every pool party, hiding
behind the facade of “we received a complaint.”
We often are seen as gang-banging, car-drop
ping, bass-booming punks who cannot be allowed
to freely associate without supervision.
Ironically, society teaches us that all of this was
our creation. We are the ones who brought this
about. It’s the way we live. It’s a fact of our lives.
The time has come to wake up. We must rise up
and destroy these negative characteristics that
have been unjustly put upon us.
If we return to the business of educating our
selves, involving ourselves, and changing our
selves, we will overcome society’s desire to judge
us by their prejudices.
But, we must first reject the notion that we are
too young to make a difference. We cannot fall
prey to society’s desire to talk “at” us like children
while speaking “for” us as if we were mute.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was in his mid-20s
when the Montgomery Bus Boycott began. SNCC
stood for the “Student” Non-Violent Coordinating
Committee. The fraternities and sororities we now
join were started by students.
If we choose to, we can set our minds on re
building ourselves. We can enter into intellectual
conversations about the state of this world and our
unrealized dreams.
We can fight every time we see society pointing
us in a negative direction. We can attack every in
stance of prejudice and reshape society’s attitude
toward us.
We can stand tall and proud, with dignity, class
and self-respect. Our youth is our strength. We are
the future. Let us lead, for we have the energy. We
simply need to wake up and find the desire.
J. Frank Hernandez is a senior
agricultural journalism major
DAY.
APPLY.
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